Activities for Kids
The Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History virtual tours allow visitors to take self-guided, room-by-room tours of select exhibits and areas within the museum from their desktop or mobile device. Visitors can also access select collections and research areas at our satellite support and research stations as well as past exhibits no longer on display.
Featured
Helpful info from the Institute for Disaster Mental Health.
View the full resource here.
Once you’ve identified your primary sources of stress, tackle the things you actually can alter. You may realize that you can reduce the impact of concerns in this category by implementing problem-focused coping strategies. That may involve a kind of second-level approach: You can’t control whether your kids are sent home from school for an extended period, for example, but you can control whether you have a plan to deal with childcare if that occurs.
So make that plan, and then make a backup plan for your original plan – and let it be okay if those plans are not perfect, because they won’t be. But in times of stress or rapid change it’s a lot easier to activate a pre-existing strategy than to develop one on the fly, so it’s worth some mental preparation to really think through potential demands in advance so you’re not caught unprepared when they suddenly arise.
You’ll probably find that simply having those plans in place gives you sense of control that reduces some anxiety about these particular concerns.
Featured
Helpful info from the Institute for Disaster Mental Health.
View the full resource here.
It may be helpful to pause for a moment and reflect on what you’re actually
concerned about: Are you worried that you’ll get sick yourself, or that a family member will? Or that you’ll be unable to keep working and earning money? Or that there will never again be an adequate supply of toilet paper in your local market? It’s likely that you’re worried about a combination of potential issues of varying levels of seriousness, and it’s easy for those concerns to get mashed up together into a single swirling cloud of anxiety and dread that feels impossible to handle.
In fact, there’s a lot you can do to take control of your stress. Start by breaking that cloud down into manageable parts by consciously thinking through these questions:
Then break that list down further into categories of what you can control (at least partially) and what you can’t, and make plans for how you’ll deal with both types of concerns.
Activities for Kids
Celebrate Earth Day with Boeing and Discovery Education as we highlight the ways Boeing is using advanced technology, engineering, and its dedicated workforce to create a more sustainable future. The ecoAction Virtual Field Trip brings students to various locations around Seattle, Washington to meet STEM experts who are working on sustainability in the air, on land, in the water, and in the handling and reduction of waste.
It’s on all of us to create a more sustainable world. Join us to see how Boeing engineers and other STEM experts are working on sustainability in the air, on land, in the water, and in the handling and reduction of waste. Hop onboard the ecoDemonstrator test plane to see how an ingenious vortex generator reduces drag on airplanes, step inside a forest to learn about the creation of sustainable biofuels, check out a new permeable pavement, and see how recycling can lead to innovation.
Featured
Helpful info from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
View the full resource here.
Social distancing is a way to keep people from interacting closely or frequently enough to spread an infectious disease. Schools and other gathering places such as movie theaters may close, and sports events and religious services may be cancelled.
Quarantine separates and restricts the movement of people who have been exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick. It lasts long enough to ensure the person has not contracted an infectious disease.
Isolation prevents the spread of an infectious disease by separating people who are sick from those who are not. It lasts as long as the disease is contagious.
Activities for Kids
Interested in learning more about the sky? Then join Piper on this Facebook Live recording where she will go through all the steps of the Sky Badge. Get ready to learn about constellations, Earth’s atmosphere, and more! All you need is a few sheets of paper and coloring supplies.
Featured
Helpful info from the Institute for Disaster Mental Health.
View the full resource here.
This may sound obvious but it’s worth remembering: People will react to this outbreak with different degrees of concern based on factors like their individual situation (for example, do they have kids or other dependents to worry about; does their work expose them to potentially sick people; were they already dealing with financial stress) and their personal characteristics (for example, do they experience anxiety or depression even under more typical life conditions).
It’s easy to slip into criticizing others across both ends of the reactivity spectrum (i.e., “why are you freaking out?” vs. “why aren’t you freaking out?”). That’s especially problematic if family members, especially partners, have different reaction styles and coping methods, causing friction and limiting their ability to support each other during these trying times. Keep in mind that personal coping styles vary and you can’t change other people, but you can make an effort to tolerate different reactions.
Activities for Kids
Join Boeing and Discovery Education on a mission to inspire the world through aerospace innovation with an exclusive virtual field trip to historic Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. This behind-the-scenes tour will introduce kids to just a few of the amazing Boeing employees who are preparing to write the next chapter of space history with the launch of the Starliner/CST-100 spacecraft and the deployment of the Space Launch System (SLS).
Featured
Helpful info from the World Health Organization.
View the full resource here.
No. Hand dryers are not effective in killing the 2019-nCoV. To protect yourself against the new coronavirus, you should frequently clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water. Once your hands are cleaned, you should dry them thoroughly by using paper towels or a warm air dryer.
No. Spraying alcohol or chlorine all over your body will not kill viruses that have already entered your body. Spraying such substances can be harmful to clothes or mucous membranes (i.e. eyes, mouth). Be aware that both alcohol and chlorine can be useful to disinfect surfaces, but they need to be used under appropriate recommendations.
No. There is no evidence that regularly rinsing the nose with saline has protected people from infection with the new coronavirus.
There is some limited evidence that regularly rinsing nose with saline can help people recover more quickly from the common cold. However, regularly rinsing the nose has not been shown to prevent respiratory infections.
No, antibiotics do not work against viruses, only bacteria.
The new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is a virus and, therefore, antibiotics should not be used as a means of prevention or treatment.
However, if you are hospitalized for the 2019-nCoV, you may receive antibiotics because bacterial co-infection is possible.
Featured
Helpful info from the Institute for Disaster Mental Health.
View the full resource here.
It’s important to stay informed about what’s going on, but that should not be your main focus in life throughout the outbreak. There is a lot of misinformation and conflicting news circulating, which just compounds confusion and stress for many people. Part of that is due to the rapidly evolving situation which legitimate news outlets are struggling to keep up with, but part results from people spreading rumors, or using misinformation to try to sell products or advance political agendas.
For accurate scientific guidance, you can’t do better than the Centers for Disease Control website: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/ That’s the most reliable source for current information about the disease itself as well as resources for dealing with its effects.
To keep up with local impacts, choose a single news source you’ve found to be reputable in the past, and set yourself a schedule for when you’ll check for updates. Unless you’re actually in charge of the response, you probably don’t need to be monitoring the news 24/7, and you may find it reduces your stress considerably to limit your exposure to a few intentional news checks a day, rather than keeping the outbreak top of mind by constantly monitoring the latest information.
The same goes for social media: It can be a great way to stay connected with positive sources of social support, but Facebook and the like are not good places to get reputable information. These sites may expose you to a lot of dubious theories and rumors, sowing confusion and stress, so consider limiting your social media use and being selective in what you expose yourself to in all media.